A New Book!
The long-awaited book by Don Coyhis and Bill White
is now available! Alcohol Problems in
Native America: The Untold Story of Resistance
and Recovery–“The
Truth About the Lie” is a book
that will find avid response among the Native
American, addictions recovery, academic, history,
research and Wellbriety communities. Read about
it inside. Purchase it now at www.whitebison.org

Alcohol
Problems in Native America
A new history takes a different point of view

Co-authors Don Coyhis
(left) and Bill White sign an early draft of the
book at the White Bison Wellbriety conference in
Denver, Colorado in 2005.

Don
Coyhis (Mohican
Nation) is Founder
and President of
White Bison, Inc.
and author of Meditations
with Native American Elders

Bill White is a Senior Research
Consultant for Chestnut Health Systems and author
of Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction
Treatment and Recovery in America

It’s here at
last! The book Don Coyhis and Bill White have been
working on for five years is now available to benefit
Native American addictions recovery and the recovery
field in general. We feel that this book will be
useful and find a home in many different communities.

Alcohol Problems
in Native America: The Untold Story of Resistance
and Recovery-“The Truth About the
Lie” came off the presses in February, 2006 and
is now for sale on the White Bison, Inc. website, www.whitebison.org.
The long awaited book sets the record straight and
tells how Indian communities resisted the effects of
alcohol on their people for well over 250 years. It
backs up its claim with careful referencing to the
historic record following every chapter––the
references are almost like a book within a book. Alcohol
Problems in Native America also gives a thumbnail sketch
of the history of the Indian sobriety and Wellbriety
movements from the 1950’s onward.

Myths and Facts
There are many eye opening revelations in this new
book but one of the most interesting comes in Chapter
4, Firewater Myths: Ideas
as Weapons of Colonization.
This is a chapter where stereotypes about Indians
and alcohol are “de-mythified” so that
stigmas can be put to rest once and for all. Four
prevalent Firewater Myths are discussed and the truth
about each of the four is contrasted and backed up
with discussion of the facts. Firewater Myths arose
to support the colonization agenda of settlers and
are not supported by either historic or medical/scientific
evidence. Here are the four myths and the actual
facts you’ll find discussed in the book.

Myth 1: American Indians have an inborn, insatiable
appetite for alcohol.Fact 1: The history of the rise of alcohol problems
in Native communities was reconstructed and perpetuated
in conformity with the firewater mythology.

Myth 2: American Indians are hypersensitive
to alcohol (cannot “hold their liquor”)
and are inordinately vulnerable to alcohol addiction.Fact 2: The extent and nature of alcohol problems in
Native communities continues to be distorted and misrepresented
by the failure to use unduplicated counts in epidemiological
studies and by framing all Native alcohol problems
within the conceptual rubric of alcoholism.

Myth 3. American Indians are dangerously violent when
intoxicated.Fact 3: There has yet to be definitive evidence that
Native Peoples physically respond to alcohol differently
than other races or possess a unique biological vulnerability
to alcoholism.

Indian History and Recovery
Now!Alcohol Problems in Native
America is filled with images
and documents from the historic record, helping to
illuminate and explain an already very readable text.
The first photos in the book go back to the 1500’s,
showing how Europeans viewed indigenous use of alcohol
in the Western hemisphere through a distinctly European
lens. Some of the first factual historic evidence
for Indian resistance to the effects of alcohol on
the Native communities of North America begins as
early as 1737 with a group of tribal leaders called
the Delaware Prophets. These resisters from the eastern
portion of North America include names such as Wyoming
Woman, Papounhan, Wangomend, and Neolin. They were
followed by the historically well-known Christian
Indian Preachers Samson Occom, William Apess, and
George Copway, as well as by Handsome Lake, who remained
within his traditional Seneca ways. The book also
presents the famous 1802 letter from President Thomas
Jefferson to Handsome Lake, which is so revealing
about the mindset of the day and shows that Jefferson
was aware of the impact Handsome Lake was about to
make on his people.

How can reading a book about the
history of resistance to alcohol in Native America
help those on a recovery and Wellbriety journey today?
David Kagabitang, Odawa, a mental health therapist
working with the Little Traverse Bay Bands substance
abuse and mental health program in Harbor Springs,
Michigan offers some helpful insight about the use
of this book for recovering people. He says, “Any
historical information that a client can access about
who they are is important. For many years I have
collected Native American books and tried to read
them and learn from them. I frequently use Bibliotherapy
as tool with my clients. I think that enlightening
a client to the Native American struggle with substance
abuse and adjustment is important information to
ground a client in who they are.”

Bibliotherapy…a great term! Reading
about the struggle against addictions on the part of
our ancestors in days gone by is one of the ways to
help all of us answer the question Who
Am I? on our own healing journeys.
Addictions Counselor Kagabitang goes on to connect
the reading journey with the recovery journey. He says, “Reading
can be a break from the stress of the world. Being
able to capture someone’s attention and have
them “relax” for awhile is good. If a person
can relax and at the same time learns something really
useful that is a double reward.”

The past meets the present
The book continues with the history of the Handsome
Lake Movement born in the early 1800’s and
goes on to talk about the further resistance and
vision of the Ghost Dance and the coming of the Native
American Church taking shape in the late 1800’s.
The work and vision of Wovoka (Ghost Dance) and Quanah
Parker (Peyote Sacrament of the Native American Church)
lead naturally to the founding of the Native American
Church in 1918, the birth of the sobriety movement
in the 1950’s and the “Indianization” of
Alcoholics Anonymous beginning in the 1980’s.
The late 1980’s also see the first glimmer
of the Wellbriety Movement, bringing culture back
into the recovery journey and emphasizing both sobriety
and wellness together.

It is time Indian
People rejected alcohol, not because some Indians
develop alcohol problems and alcoholism, but
because alcohol is a symbol of efforts to exploit
and destroy us as a people. It is time Indian
People rejected alcohol because it is not part
of our nature. When you return home to your
people, spread the truth about our true nature.
Tell the people to cast off the lies that have
been told about them. Invite them to write
a new chapter in our history—a chapter written
not with words, but with lives lived in Wellbriety.
We will destroy the “Drunken Indian” stereotype
with every sober breath we take. We will call
upon Indian nations and Indian families to detoxify
themselves from the poison that was injected
into their histories. We will sweat this poison
from our bodies and our minds and rediscover
the essence of ourselves as Indian People.

–From
the book

The sobriety and Wellbriety movements
belong to all Native or indigenous people—they
are not the property of any one person, tribal group
or organization. Chapters 13 and 14 give a brief
history of the Wellbriety Movement, revealing some
of the events that took place on the four Journeys
of the Sacred Hoop across Turtle Island during visits
to communities in both the US and Canada from 1999
to 2003. Here are some forgotten words spoken in
connection with those memorable journeys.

“Kenny Winans, a Native American and the Arkansas
Hoop Journey coordinator, speaks from the heart about
the coming of the Hoop to his state on May 19, 2000: ‘I
was not prepared for the overwhelming feeling I felt
when we accepted the Hoop. I could feel the Great Spirit
in the Hoop. I could feel the hope, the love, the strength,
the prayers, the tools for recovery, and the cries
of our ancestors. As the Hoop was being handed over
by the Oklahoma people, Chief Henson said a prayer.
We walked across the Arkansas bridge singing because
our hearts were full of joy and pride. It was a good
day. When we got over the bridge, we held the Hoop
high and gave our war cries. Then we went to the park
and handed the Hoop to the walkers as Chief Henson
gave another prayer. When the ceremony was over, we
sat around and visited with old friends and new friends.
We look forward to the Hoop being in our state, and
we look forward to the future.’”

Extending Oppression and Colonization TheoryAlcohol Problems in Native
America extends research
about the relationship of oppression and colonization
of communities and peoples into a discussion of the
alcohol and other drug addictions that often take
root as a result. It is one of the first books to
make this connection, and it does so very clearly
in Chapter 15, the final chapter. This chapter may
also provide the basis for other research into a
link between oppression of the mainstream people
of any society, with the drug or alcohol epidemics
that often follow. If oppression can lead to addiction
for minority peoples, might this also be true in
general? If so, what would be the nature of the “cultural
subjugation” of the mainstream that might cause
this to happen?

Here is how Chapter 15 introduces itself:“There are many predictable patterns in the evolving
relationship between colonizing and colonized cultures,
and alcohol and other drugs play a significant role in
these relationships,” say the authors. “While
our focus in this final discussion will be on the principles
underlying the role of alcohol in the colonization and
decolonization of the Indigenous Peoples of North America,
the processes we will describe are very similar to broader
relationships with culturally subjugated groups within
North America and throughout the world.”

The closing chapter connects oppression with large-scale
chemical addictions but it does so in a way that is
in complete harmony with the goals of an individual
on his or her recovery journey. This is an important
and possibly life-saving point reinforced by Candace
Shelton, Osage, a substance abuse counselor and the
senior Native American specialist for the Fetal Alcohol
Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Center for Excellence in Tucson,
Arizona. Here is what she says:

“Chapter 15 is a clear explanation of the historical
trauma experienced by Native Americans. Anybody who
reads it would understand what we are talking about
when we talk about historical trauma. I liked that
it wasn’t real heavy on the colonization and
the oppression because you can get too hung up in that
and it might give someone a reason why they drink instead
of being accountable for their behavior. I think the
book is a very good educational piece for anybody working
in substance abuse and working with Indian people in
any way.”

The FutureAlcohol Problems in Native
America is an interdisciplinary
book that has a message for many different communities.
Some of these include: Addictions counselors and
treatment facilities working with Native American
clients; Native Americans and non-Native people in
recovery; Addictions researchers and addictions recovery
program providers; Tribal and Native community leaders;
Native Americans in prison; Native American history
and Indian Studies programs; Secondary, college and
graduate education; High school, college and community
libraries.

We are anxious to know how this
book will be useful for you. After reading it, please
take a few minutes to write a few lines about your
impressions of the book. Just drop them into an e
mail and send them to: info@whitebison.org with “Alcohol Problems Book” in
the subject line. All comments are welcome. Mention
your background and tribal affiliation, if any. From
time to time we’ll share your words with the
Wellbriety community.

We at White Bison, Inc. are proud
of this book and of the research and many experiences
that went into writing it. We are grateful to The
Christopher D. Smithers Foundation, Inc. of Mill
Neck, NY whose generous grant allowed us to print
the book and offer it to you. We honor our ancestors
who resisted the effects of alcohol on themselves
and on their communities over the ages. Their efforts
and good heart encourage us to follow their example
today. We thank all of you who have helped make this
book a reality with your suggestions, input, feedback
and encouragement. We are especially proud of all
participants in the Wellbriety and sobriety communities––you
are the real authors of this book.

Richard Simonelli
Editor, Wellbriety! Magazine

Alcohol Problems in Native
America:
The Untold Story of Resistance and Recovery–“The
Truth About the Lie”
By Don L. Coyhis & William L. White